Positioning rests

• Jul 23, 2012 - 10:40

Hi all,

I downloaded musescore 1.2 at the weekend in order to write some guitar music, but I've hit a problem with rest positioning when using multiple voices: the rests positions appear fixed and are written over the notes of the other part. It would be great if rests could be moved on the stave using the cursor keys, as with notes.

One other thing comes to mind: it would be very nice to write music without page formatting (i.e. have a single stave of indeterminate length) and only apply the formatting once the piece is written - it's much easier to input music this way.

That aside I have to say a big thanks to everyone contributing to this very impressive software.

Comments

• Jul 24, 2012 - 09:39

Thanks lasconic, that worked a treat. I think my confusion was caused by the fact that note input mode allows you to scroll through the piece raising and lowering notes on the stave - but not rests, which seems counterintuitive to me. Could this feature be made available via note input mode?

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• Jul 24, 2012 - 15:36

I don't think that would reallybe appropriate. Notes can be moved immediately after entry because notes are *meant* to be moved - the vertical position of the note is how you know what note it is. Whereas rests are not normally meant to be moved at all - only for special circumstances, and for layout purposes only (the vertical position has no *musical* meaning). Said another way, notes can be moved vertically in note input mode because moving notes vertically actually has a music effect and is not purely a layout issue, so it makes sense to move the, in note input mode. Note you cannot move notes horizontally in note inout mode, because that is layout only, and hence belongs inedit mode.

True, in 1.2, it is necessry to adjust positions manually rather often in multiple voice music, so it is tempting to want an easier way, but that is already fixed in 2.0. It will be much less common to need to move rests, so it doesn't seem to me that adding purely layout-oriented functionalty to note input mode just for those rare occasions makes sense. I think we should let note input mode remain being about entering *music*, and let edit mode remain being about adjusting layout.

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• Jul 23, 2012 - 17:36

The scrolling view in 2.0 seems to work pretty well, so that's definitely something to look forward to. Also, rests in multiple voices are automaticlally repositioned vettically in 2.0.

Meanwhile, in 1.2, I've been using a "poor man's scrolling view" - I temporarily change the page size to something just tall enough for one system, and make it just wide enough to fit a simgle page on the screen at once (that way, page up / down work as expected). When I am done with the basic note entry stuff, then I go back to the actual paper size I am usng and fiddle with formatting.

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• Jul 24, 2012 - 09:51

Thanks, my main issue with the current view is that a note I've just entered can disappear from view as the editor scrolls to the next stave (although, as I discovered last night, a single back arrow brings it back into view). I think the scrolling view will improve things a lot.

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